Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower primed to take rare chance of clinching a third Test victory on an Ashes tour
Perhaps this is as big a Test as any of them. The Ashes have been retained and Australia are wounded, both physically and mentally. The captain has been hounded as he once hounded the leaders of others, and has gone, done by his own team. So too a leading bowler, Ryan Harris, whose ebullience did for England in Perth as much as the landmark performance from Mitchell Johnson. They have a new captain, Michael Clarke, in dreadful form himself and, despite all the outward displays of solidarity, neither universally liked nor respected in his own ranks, and in Usman Khawaja and Michael Beer, likely Test debutants as No3 and the spin option.
It does not sound like a recipe for success against an England team who are going from strength to strength. Yet there remains the prospect that for all the celebrations here and at home, all the sprinkler dances and Downing Street invitations, Australia may yet rise from the canvas and deliver the blow that would level the series and, at a stroke, diminish all that England have achieved over the past couple of months. A travesty it might seem, but it would be fact.
England have been good in dead rubbers, usually because the series winners have taken their eye off things. But they will be reminded by Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower that this rubber is very much alive. And that well as England bounce back from defeat, almost a trademark now, so too did Australia after the second Test at Adelaide, the first of their two innings defeats.
Together Flower and Strauss have to reassemble their troops after the new year celebrations down by the Harbour bridge, and refocus on what this match really means. Since the Bodyline series only Len Hutton's 1954-55 tourists and those of Mike Brearley in 1978-79, who took on a side devastated by World Series cricket, have won three or more Tests in a series in Australia. Unless the weather interferes, the coach and captain will accept nothing less. This is the match in which they can demonstrate a ruthlessness that despite their considerable achievements, they have yet to demonstrate to the full.
They have an advantage. Before the tour began, or even before the party was selected, David Saker, the architect of the bowling plan, said that of all Australia's pitches, the Sydney Cricket Ground would suit England's play more than Australia's. It does not turn as once it did, he would have said, but it swings ? Australia were tormented by Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir a year ago ? and in Jimmy Anderson England possess the best exponent of the art in the game. And if it did happen to spin, then there is none better at the moment than Graeme Swann.
England's batsmen cope with the moving ball on a slowish pitch better than their Australian counterparts. Finally, they can out-field any team in the world. It all represents a considerable credential.
Now comes the sting. How clean will a new broom sweep? So driven has been Ricky Ponting, so utterly devoted to seeking retribution for what happened to his team in England in 2009, that he trained himself into a slender shadow, to the extent that some are suggesting he overtrained and lost some of his power. It has served to give him a haunted look as the tide has turned against him.
There is just a chance that his finger injury has come at an apposite time: sometimes a change is as good as a rest. It means, though, that the burden falls on Clarke, who has failed consistently in this series. Will the extra responsibility galvanise him into action or weigh him down so heavily that he sinks? England will come at him stronger than ever now.
There will also be a huge challenge for Khawaja, a young man for whom no one has anything but the highest regard. He is being asked to fill some huge boots though, and in the most challenging of positions. The fellow who comes in first drop has to be the most versatile, able to face the new ball, or take advantage of a situation created by the openers. He must dig in or force the pace. He must have the best technical skills.
Few who have seen him doubt his ability, but the promotion to Test cricket will still come as a culture shock. The great Greg Chappell says that it took him 15 Tests before he thought he had come to terms with the technical and mental adjustments demanded by batting at the highest level against the best bowlers. Khawaja is being asked to rescue a situation and to do so from the front line.
There is no imperative for England to change the side that won so convincingly at the MCG, but almost certainly it will be the last time that the batsmen play together in a Test. By the time they face Sri Lanka in May things will have moved on. It will be time to see whether Eoin Morgan really has what it takes to be a Test batsman. So this may well be the final Test that Paul Collingwood plays.
If that is so then he deserves to have gone out on the highest of notes, for no England player in recent times has given more of himself to the cause or squeezed more out of his ability. He has been the team's troubleshooter, a man for a crisis. The signs have been there for a while, though. Flower will want more from his No5 than brilliant catches, and in the first instance it will be Ian Bell who provides it. One wishes the best of circumstances for Collingwood: runs for him, a stunner in the slips, an England win. And then, after 68 matches, his own announcement on his terms. That would be the way to go. There is much for him to do for England, but for Tests this has to be it.
Luis Hernández
Jonathan Herrera
Mike Hessman
Brandon Hicks
by Pat Lackey
While free agent dominoes have been falling left and right this winter, one team that's been surprisingly silent is the Los Angeles Angels. After missing the playoffs for just the second time since 2004, the Angels were expected to aggressively pursue the upgrades necessary to catch the reigning AL Champion Rangers. Instead, they sat by while Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth signed elsewhere. Owner Arte Moreno spoke to The Los Angeles Times Friday in discussing the club's offseason thus far and where they expect to go from here. 
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My first reaction to the 